Patients Are Powerful

Remember the days of Caesar Chavez and the protests and marches on behalf of farm workers? I don’t know about you, but I boycotted grapes for years! Well, we may need to organize once again. As a chiropractor, I am concerned about health, in general, but I have a particular focus, as you can imagine, on the nervous system since chiropractic adjustments can benefit the nervous system in many ways. That’s way I was particularly disturbed about a new U.S. study that appears in the September issue of the Archives of Neurology. The study found that people whose jobs bring them in regular contact with pesticides may be at increased risk for Parkinson’s disease.

Researchers interviewed 519 Parkinson’s patients and 511 people without the disease about their work history and asked them about their exposure to toxins, including pesticides and solvents. The study found that 8.5 percent of Parkinson’s patients reported pesticide exposure, compared with 5.3 percent  of those without the disease.

The study found that three compounds were associated with a more than threefold increased risk of Parkinson’s– an organic (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid), an herbicide (paraquat), and an insecticide (permethrin). Laboratory tests have shown that all three compounds have effects on dopaminergic neurons, which are affected by Parkinson’s disease. “Other pesticide exposures, such as hobby gardening, residential exposure, wearing treated garments or dietary intake, were not assessed. Because these exposures may affect more subjects, future attention is warranted,” said lead researcher, Dr. Caroline M. Tanner of the Parkinson’s Institute in Sunnyvale, California.

For now, the finding suggests an association between work-related pesticide exposure and increased risk of Parkinson’s and that should be enough for all of us to sit up and take notice, and then stand up and get active against such harmful pollutants in the environment.

For the full article, go to alegent.com

Technorati Tags: Parkinson's disease, pesticides

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